The latest information released by Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop suggests that the first Nokia handsets powered with Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system will be released sooner than expected. According to Elop’s statement, the handsets will be released by the fourth quarter this year. The handsets are expected to be released in the UK at first.

The decision to make Windows Phone 7 handsets is a method to turn around Nokia’s current poor performance in the smart phone market. Elop has confirmed that the Windows Phone 7 handsets will be released for six European markets at the end of this year. At the moment, Nokia’s market share is visibly decaying within the smart phone industry which is dominated by Android and iOS devices.

The six countries where the handsets will be first released include France, UK, Italy, Netherlands Germany, and Spain. Nokia has excluded their home country, Finland for the upcoming release. Experts are somewhat confused at the fact that Nokia expects to skip the release of the handset in the US as well as the manufacturer’s home country. The reasons for the decision have not yet been made officially available.

As for Microsoft, they have made official announcements for the details of the upcoming Mango update to the Windows Phone 7 platform. The announcements were made last month and according to that, the new update will boast hundreds of all new features for the operating system. The update is all set to be released in September while Nokia’s handsets are scheduled to be released in close pursuit.

The number of Windows Phone 7 devices Nokia is planning to release adds up to a rather small 125, 000. The number suggests that the company is attempting to ease any doubts the investors may be having about the partnership. As of now, Symbian Anna has disappeared in to oblivion while all the focus lies in Windows Phone 7.

First announced in February, the HTC ChaCha is all set to be released on Vodafone very soon. An announcement made on Vodafone’s Facebook page has made the announcement that the ChaCha will be released in the near future.It is expected to be available at an affordable price tag form the leading networking provider.

The HTC ChaCha comes loaded with features that will come in handy for avid Facebook users. According to the statement issued by Vodafone, the HTC ChaCha will allow users to share a lot of things on Facebook at the push of a button. The details of the ChaCha were leaked quite a while ago and the device was mentioned among a group of other HTC devices such as included the HTC Flyer, HTC Incredible S, HTC Desire S and the HTC Salsa. Most of the devices have been already released and some experts believe that Vodafone users will not have to wait for much longer to get their hands on the HTC ChaCha.

The ChaCha is said to be a budget phone. However, the handset comes packed with a QWERTY keyboard, a 2.6-inch touchscreen, and a 5MP camera. The device will come powered on the latest version of Android and sporting the popular HTC Sense user interface. In addition, the ChaCha also boasts a 600MHz Qualcomm processor and 512MB of RAM. Although the price plans for Vodafone are not yet acknowledged, it is hoped that the device will fare well among those who are unwilling to settle on more expensive HTC handsets.

As of now, the HTC ChaCha is available at Phones4u. At the considerably low price of £249.99, the phone is defined as a smart budget choice. Vodafone’s Facebook announcement further states that their plans will offer Free BT OpenzoneWiFi and plenty of other interesting facilities.

Skype has made it official that their users will only be able to make HD quality video calls if they pay a premium for the service. According to the most recent reports, Skype has refused to certify other HD webcams that don’t come with their own built in CPU’s designed especially for HD video calls on Skype. However, the fact remains speculated that other HD webcams will not work.

According to Skype, they are unable to guarantee that other webcams will work with the HD video calling service.Last year, Skype has refused to certify some HD webcams released by Logitech and Microsoft. Skype had declared that they will not be able to guarantee that users will be able to make successful HD quality video calls using these webcams. On the other hand, webcams created according to Skype’s specifications will even run on old computers without interfering with video quality. It is believed that if a user is in possession of a webcam sporting Skype’s specifications, the quality of the video call will then solely depend on the speed of the internet connection.

One such example that meets Skype’s requirements is the Creative Live! inPerson HD which comes with its own CPU. The built in CPU allows higher video quality and will create a much smoother video call experience than with a regular laptop camera. In addition, the inPerson boasts a ‘quad mike’, flexible autofocus and built in H.264 encoder.

All this is designed t allow glitch free video calls in HD.However, the inPerson is priced at £109.99 which puts it out of reach from most clients.Other manufacturers, such as Freetalk and FaceVision have also created HD cameras that fit Skype’s strict requirements.

According to some experts, Skype has made a little too much hassle on the matter.

In our previous articles, we discussed a few areas related to conference call services such as choosing the right conference call service and how to make a conference call. In this article, we look at the hosting conference call services.

Conference call hosting shares similarities with conventional web hosting and operates in a similar model as well. In simple terms, conference call is a telephone conversation (with or without video) between three or more parties. Conference call hosting means the facilitation of hardware, software, and required connection for making a successful conference call.

When it comes to web hosting, the host may have a server where several users are making use of it by hosting their web sites and web application simultaneously. The number of concurrent users that the server can handle is mainly determined by the ability of the server. This has no exception when it comes to conference call hosting. The central server used for hosting conference calls is called ‘Connection Bridge’ and this can handle concurrent conversations. The number of concurrent conversations and users the connection bridge can handle varies depending on the capacity of hardware used.

Same as web hosting, conference call hosting has many options available. Many organizations may host their connection bridge at host’s premises and maintained by the host. This has a certain level of cost involved as the organization has to pay for hosting space, electricity, digital security, physical security, and maintenance labor. If the organization makes heavy use of conference calling, hosting own Connection Bridge at organization’s premises will be an advantage.

In case if the conference call service host host’s the conferencing facility, you can choose a package without an operator. This way, you can further reduce the cost. One thing that you will have to be concerned is the security of the service. You need to asses and evaluate the security offered by the hosting company as if your system is compromised, you will lose many things.

Since conference calling gets popular every day, it is worthwhile to discuss on how to make a conference call in the right way. Nowadays, many organizations use conference call facilities and many of them do not utilize the facility in the optimum way.

After selecting the conference call service provider, you need to decide how the dialing works. There are two basic ways of dialing; toll-free and charged. If you like to bear the cost of the conference call, you can assign a toll-free number so the others can dial in with no cost. Otherwise, you can let the callers to bear the charges. When it comes to business organizations, the former method is usually used.

Scheduling the conference call is one of the most important steps of the process. You need to carefully select the participants and invite by sending invitations. Invitations should consist of some vital information. The most important information is the conference call code. This is a number that the participants should enter when they connect to the conference call for authentication. This way, no unauthorized person can login to the conference call and this make the call secured.

Next, it is important to mention the scheduled date and the time. If participants are located at different time zones, then the respective time zones of the participants should be mentioned when the invitation is sent. This way, participants will have a minimum hassle converting times etc. Most of the software available for sending invitations such as Outlook and Lotus Notes support the time zone facility.

At the specified time, everyone should login to the conference call and enter their conference code. At this step, usually the conferencing system asks the participants to identify themselves to the conference so the rest of the participants get to know who is logging in. After every one is logged in, you can start the conference call!